NEW VIRTUAL REALITY VIDEO TELLS SOIL HEALTH STORY FROM ‘EVERY ANGLE’

FEBRUARY 2018

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StoryUP, the nonprofit ag group has produced a “virtual reality” video that will allow viewers to visit a farm enrolled in SHP and …">

(Posted Thu. Feb 22nd, 2018)

As interest grows in soil health and its potential to optimize farming, the Soil Health Partnership has developed a new tool to immerse the inquisitive. Partnering with StoryUP, the nonprofit ag group has produced a “virtual reality” video that will allow viewers to visit a farm enrolled in SHP and experience a Virtual Field Day.

"One of our most powerful assets is our enrolled farmers sharing their stories and knowledge with others," said NCGA Vice President of Production and Sustainability, Nick Goeser. "This video format allows viewers to transport themselves to a farm and learn from the farmer as if they are standing right there with him at a field day. We are all about innovation, and that spirit extends to our communications program."

Virtual reality is 360-degree, 3D video or computer-generated environments viewed with special goggles where the user can see in all directions.

After giving some attendees of the Soil Health Summit a preview in January, the SHP officially launches the video, called “New Frontier in Agriculture,” at the Commodity Classic convention and trade show, Feb. 27 – March 1 in Anaheim, Calif. Attendees can stop by the SHP booth (#2739) to experience the video on a headset, and enter into a drawing for a prize.

The 4-minute experience, viewed in a Samsung GearVR headset, places the user in close proximity to farmers and SHP staff on Tim Smith’s farm in Eagle Grove, Iowa.

Smith, enrolled with SHP since 2014, demonstrates how he sets up strip-till equipment (a less intensive form of tillage), discusses why soil health matters to him and explains the benefits he’s experienced.

“The most obvious benefits to using cover crops, strip-till or no-till on my farm are lack of erosion…and less ephemeral gullies in my fields,” Smith says in the video. “When we get heavy rainfalls I’m not so concerned about washouts.”

The SHP will have a professional goggle at Commodity Classic for viewing, but the video is available to watch with any VR headset, including cardboard versions handed out at the SHP booth. To watch it in a headset:

For regular viewing, the video is available on the SHP YouTube Channel, where it is best viewed in the Google Chrome browser, which provides arrows allowing the user to turn the viewpoint.

An initiative of the National Corn Growers Association, the Soil Health Partnership is a data-driven program working to quantify the benefits of practices that support soil health from an economic as well as environmental standpoint.